Improv Groups Bring Laughs and Camraderie with 'VERI(funny)TAS'

“We’re not looking to compete—except in kickball,” says Gideon W. Nachman ’16 of Three Letter Acronym, describing his group’s attitude towards "VERI(funny)TAS." An improv festival created and inaugurated at the Adams Pool Theater on Oct. 17 and 18, "VERI(funny)TAS" featured Harvard’s three improv groups—Immediate Gratification Players, On Thin Ice, and Three Letter Acronym—alongside six others: Liquid Fun of Boston University, Starla and Sons of Brown, Dangerbox of New York University, Mason Improv Association of George Mason University, Seriously Bent of Suffolk, and McGill Improv from McGill University. In addition to three weekend shows, hosted by stand-up comic Sierra L. Katow ’16, the festival included an improv workshop for the participating groups and one highly anticipated kickball game.

Members of TLA stress that, mock-competitive sporting matches aside, the spirit of the festival was intended to be collaborative. “I think the way we set up our festival, it’s explicitly defined as a non-competitive atmosphere,” Alex N. Lee ’17 says. Rather than produce a “winner,” "VERI(funny)TAS" aimed to create an exchange of ideas and laughs among the nine participating groups as well as between the performers and their audiences.

“I think that’s sort of the big draw of these festivals,” Jason Boxer of NYU’s Dangerbox says. “You get to see what other people are doing and share techniques and steal ideas. The festivals that are no good are the ones that are competitive and the ones where you’re sizing each other up. The ones that are great are the ones where everyone’s collaborating and sharing stuff.”

With the exception of Harvard’s On Thin Ice, all the ensembles performed long-form improv, a technique requiring the creation of disparate short scenes and characters with distinctive personalities, all of which must then be woven together into a complete play of sorts. Each group’s individual brand of humor added yet another twist to their variations on the format. McGill Improv included a voice-over that set the scene (“We begin in an abandoned warehouse...”) and announced each change of context (“Cut to happier days!”) in their 30-minute creation, while IGP and TLA, in providing no context, kept their audiences guessing both as to where each scene was taking place and how it related to an ever-unidentified, overarching story.

The groups’ shared workshop took place on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 18. “It will be a really nice opportunity for us to learn from each other, as well as do some improv with the people from other groups,” festival organizer David A. Kaufman ’17 said before the workshop. “The thing about improv is it’s all based on this trust and this connection, so it’s really hard to do a scene with someone and not feel like you want to be their friend. So hopefully that leads to some really good connection among the different groups.” The post-improv familiarity he described was evidenced at the end of the 7 P.M. show on Saturday. After performing individually, IGP, McGill Improv and TLA all played one final game together, entitled “Sex with me is like…” Although the game consisted entirely of one-liners and thus did not include explicit interaction, members from the three groups appeared to enjoy riffing on one another.

Members of TLA hope to host more festivals in the future, in addition to those held annually by IGP. Speaking for the group as a whole, Lee says, “It is without a doubt something we’d like to have happen again, hopefully on a regular basis.”